


Survival

by KawaiiBlue18



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Alien Biology, Aliens, How does one socialize with a human?, Impostor doesn’t want to kill anyone, Impostors are aliens, I’ll add more tags later, Oh impostor of the vent what is your wisdom?, Orange is an impostor, Orange wasn’t prepared enough for this, Orange's codename is literally Sneak, Orange’s dad was a good father, Why do impostors kill people?, cause the crewmates thought it was funny, change my mind, impostor doesn’t know why either
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26826880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KawaiiBlue18/pseuds/KawaiiBlue18
Summary: Orange was an alien among humans. They were apart of an alien race that disguised themselves as and lived among humans in order to survive. It was Orange’s first true mission since they’d grown into young adult. They had a simple mission aboard the Skeild: kill, eat, don’t get caught, reproduce, teach the young, and repeat. However, Orange finds its much harder than they originally thought. How did their dad make this look so easy?
Comments: 7
Kudos: 29





	1. Run

A frightened astronaut in a red suit ran hurriedly across a hallway. His breathing was ragged and he moved in a panicked fashion.

”Yellow?! Yellow where are you??!” He shouted loudly and he only momentarily looked into the rooms he passed.

He was just about to pass the Commutations room when something caught his eye that made him stop dead in his tracks. There, lying on the floor motionless and covered in crimson, was the said yellow suited astronaut. Her body was sprawled out on her back, her midsection torn open and missing organs that should have been there. Blood pooled from the wound, creating a puddle on the floor.   
  
Red stood there in complete shock, hands coming up to his visor in horror, “Yellow...no...”   
He knew he needed to report, but all he could do was stare.

Suddenly a figure walks up behind him, a gun trained at the back of Red’s helmet, “Oh Red, what a predicament we’ve come upon. Shame though, you weren’t as bad as the others.”

”Why...? Why are you doing this? I trusted you! I should have known it was you all along!”

”And risk getting ejected? Like anyone would believe an astronaut in a suit the color of blood. I’ve known you humans long enough to know you trust and distrust easily. I only needed your trust as an alibi. Humans are expendable, if the time came where I was suspicious, I could simply blame it on you.”

”But that doesn’t justify killing others! Why do you imposters hate us so much? What did we ever do to you?”

”Oh it’s not so much of what you _did_ to us, it’s more of what you can do _for_ us. You see as there are billions of humans, there are only so many of us. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an offspring to feed.”

The sound of a gunshot rang and the body of the red suited astronaut went slack, falling to the floor with a thud.

The orange suited astronaut stared at the two freshly dead bodies in front of him before looking back at the Storage room. “Alright, it’s safe to come out now. Come eat while it’s still fresh.”

I peeked out from around the corner, looking around cautiously before walking over to the the older orange suited astronaut. Only standing about 3/4 his height, I hugged his leg before looking at the body of the red suited human on the floor. “You take first bite off of this one. I had some of the yellow suited human earlier, I’ll save the rest for later. Oh and don’t forget to take the suit off first. That fabric isn’t good for you.”

”Okay, thanks Dad.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a little prequel before the actual story starts so yeah


	2. New Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orange grows up.

That mission had been one of the first times Dad allowed me to come with him to the kill sight, let alone allow me watch how the killing was done.

Like others of my species before me, I hatched while onboard a human spaceship. Since then, Dad had made sure I stayed hidden in the vents of the ship and would return to bring me food. It got lonely in the vents sometimes, but I knew finding food must have been hard for him when I waited there for what felt like hours, so I didn’t gave him too much of a fuss about it. I would usually listen to the noises or feel the vibrations of the humans above. Depending on the crew, they didn’t talk to each other all that much or they talked all the time.

It was a routine. I’d stay in the vents, Dad would kill and deceive the humans until he was only one left. Sometimes there would be another impostor on board to share company with. We’d survive off of the human meat for food until we reached a ship docking port. Dad would usually eject any human bodies we didn’t eat, clean up or hide any bloodstains, and then we would hide out in the vents until the coast was clear. Then sneak out to transfer onto another crew.

But ever since that that mission in particular, Dad had decided I was big enough to come with him. I never left his side. Shapeshifting came naturally to our species. However, shapeshifting is limited mostly to our limbs and we have to first see what we’re trying to mimic at least once before trying to imitate it. Shifting my limbs to be human-like was one of the first things Dad taught me. Apparently human male and females have different anatomy, unlike our species that is a single gender. Dad was mimicking human male anatomy plus using human male pronouns, so I did the same. He also taught me how to shift my face and change my skin color to look human in case they ever asked me to take my helmet off.

Oh yeah and that was another thing. Dad has gotten me a smaller suit for my hatchday that matched his since the suit is not apart of the human body.

Among the others things Dad had taught me as I grew older was how to sabotage different parts of a ship, how to effectively use the vents, how to hunt without getting caught, how to speak human tongue, and how to speak my species’ native language. Our native tongue, which was mix of different noises, and scent were of the ways we could tell if there was another of our kind on board.

I was able to learn fast so by the time I was a young adult, I stood as tall as Dad. According to human earth years, I was about 18 years old.

I noticed even though we use humans as a food source, our species has a lot in common. We have the same maturity rate, however our life spans extend into the thousands. Dad was 120 years old. We also have human-like hair that we are born with, but it doesn't grow long like humans' do. Mine is a chocolate brown color. I figured these more human-like features to our true form was an adaption to our diet of humans over the generations. 

But anyways, it was my time to go off on own and continue the cycle. Dad informed me that since humans have been getting smarter at spotting our species, we’ve been losing more and more of our kind. As an adaptation, impostors must stick to themselves. We are hermaphrodites with both internal male and female reproduction parts. Once we reach sexual maturity and our body feels well nourished, we will go under a sort of asexual reproduction and produce up to 1 to 3 eggs. 

My mission was to infiltrate the ship, kill and eat humans, reproduce, and raise the young. Do not get caught. Work with other impostors that may come on board. Teach the young and once the young is grown, send them off on their own and repeat the cycle.

By this logic, I probably have older siblings I might meet along the way. If I survive long enough. I would have had a brood-mate, but my sibling's egg was stillborn. That's apparently common among impostors, to have more than one egg in case one does not survive.

And that brings me to now. Standing in a human space station at the port of the ship I'm supposed to board, wearing an orange-colored astronaut suit. I give Dad a hug goodbye, he returns it, before going to join my new human crewmates. I may never see him again.

I was verbally greeted by a human in a green-colored suit with a tablet. "Welcome to the Skeld, Orange. Go have a seat at the table while we wait for the others to join us."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's some links to Orange's ref:  
> Human form: https://www.deviantart.com/narwhalsareawsome/art/Sneak-reference-sheet-857775037  
> Impostor (True) form: https://www.deviantart.com/narwhalsareawsome/art/Sneak-Imposter-Form-ref-sheet-858615506
> 
> Don't worry I'll get that part where he gets his code name, earrings and the extra space suit! :)  
> Just wanted to put this here for now.  
> (And no the crewmates cannot see into the visors, I just made it look that way)


	3. Task Buddies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orange observes the ship and tries to plan out how he can make his first kill, but gets a little distracted.

I walked into the largest section of the ship, the Cafeteria area. At the table in the middle of the room sat 5 other astronauts, each with suits of a different color. Visors may block the view of their face, but their body language was all I needed to read mood. Some were talking amongst themselves excitedly and others just kept to themselves. I took a seat.

By the time the last crewmate entered the dock, the doors to the port shut as the ship detached for its destination. There was 10 crewmates in total including me. The green-suited one with her tablet in hand was the only one standing. She made a throat clearing noise that silenced the others.

”Alright. Welcome aboard crew. We have some newbies and some more experienced crewmates here today so I want everyone to be respectful of one another,” She momentarily glanced over at a purple-suited human. “Remember that it is a strict color code basis. No birth names or personal information is be shared amongst yourself. Code names are allowed, but color names are preferred. That being said, you may refer to me as Green. I will be taking the position of captain for this mission.

“The ship has been set on a direct course to Polus where we will be filling in for the current study group there. It will take about seven months to get there. That being said, everyone is to be contributing in keeping the ship running. You will receive a list of tasks to complete everyday. I better not see anyone slacking off or else you’ll be getting double the amount of tasks the next day.”

Green picked up a brown box that had been siting on the floor next to her. Inside was 9 almost identical tablets to the one in Green’s hand. One by one Green handed the tablets out to the crewmates according to the color sticker on the back.

”These are your work tablets. They will show you with what tasks you need to do. Once a task is completed, it will flash green. It should also provide you a map of the ship that tells you where your tasks are located. There are GPS trackers on the tablet so you can also look at where you are on the map in case you get lost. That should be all for now. You are free to get started,” Green explains before heading off with Yellow towards the Navigation room. Other crewmates were also dispersing from the Cafeteria to find their tasks. I should probably start doing that too if I wanted to shake any future suspicion.

I wandered around the ship a bit. The layout of the ship was almost exactly to what I was familiar with. Apparently every ‘Skeld’ ship had the same interior and exterior layout, complete with the vent system being in the same places. Everything was the same so finding a way to kill and quickly evade the scene should be easy, right? I hoped so.

Dad always said the best rooms for an easy kill was the Reactor, Communications, and Electrical. However, the security cameras and vents that only lead to the right and left engines made the risk of being seen running from the kill sight much higher, Communications had no vents, and humans seem to try to avoid going in Electrical alone now. Dad said to always get rid of anyone watching the cameras or sabotage communications to cut the feed.

I stopped outside the door to Electrical, looking at my tablet. It seems I did have a task in there. Before I could go in, a red-gloved hand was placed on my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks. At first I thought the worst. Is this human suspicious of me already??

It’s the red suited-er-Red who is now standing beside me. Where he came from I do not know. ”Hey, don’t you know the rule around here? It’s dangerous to go in there alone in case there happen to be any impostors around. I’m guessing you’re a newbie so I’ll let you slide this time. I can be your buddy. I have a task in electrical too anyways. Cover for each other?”

I just stared at him blankly for a hot second before shrugging, “Uhh...okay, sure.” This is a perfect opportunity for a first kill.

Red gives me a thumbs up before we both head into the room. The Electrical room is always dimly lit for some reason. While it doesn’t bother me as much, I could see how it might spook other crewmates.

My task was to calibrate the distributor in the far right corner. I didn’t like this task at all. I tried multiple tries to make the dials land in the correct spots, but I kept messing it up and the damn machine kept making me start over.

Red, who had been doing wires beside me, noticed my frustration. “Heh, you having trouble with that? Here let me help you.”

He had showed me to click on the dials when the dial knob connects with the right edge as it lights up. It took a few tries for me to get, but I eventually got the task done.

”It’s tricky the first few times, but you’ll get the hang of it soon,” Red says before moving towards the way we came. “You coming?”

I stared at Red silently. I could kill him right here, right now. Nobody would know it’s me. Then why am I frozen in place? Why did I waste those precious minutes when Red was showing me the distributor when I could have killed him and used that time on eating and escaping?

Red started looking at me weird. “Orange? Earth to Orange? Are you okay?”

This snapped me out of my mental debate. Crap. My brain scrambled for good excuse. “U-uh sorry! It’s- it’s just that I lost someone important to me on another mission. They told me they found the body in this room. I’ve only heard stories of this place before and at first I thought those people were making a big deal out of nothing. But standing in it now I’m starting see why.”

I walk over to the door and into the hallway, trying to shake Red off my back but he catches up and starts walking beside me. “Hey wait. It’s okay, I understand. Electrical is most infamous room out of all the ships’ rooms. How about we be task partners from now on? Ya know in case you need help with anything else. This is my second mission aboard the Skeld, but I know enough about the tasks to be useful. Also we can vouch for each other if anyone winds up- uh well you know what I mean. So what do you say? Task buddies?”

I looked at Red suspiciously. Why was he so insistent on staying with me? Is it because in the eyes of the crewmates I’m ‘new’? Maybe I should have kept the sob story more light. Well, if I denied him now I would probably look even more suspicious. “Um okay, sure we can be...task buddies.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t plan to have any romantic relationships in this fic. If I do, it’ll mostly likely be background characters. But Red’s role will be explained later on. ;)


	4. Why won't he leave me alone?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red doesn't want to leave Orange's side and Orange doesn't know why. Orange gets some interactions with other crewmates too.

I had been walking around the Skeld doing tasks for about a couple hours now according to the clock on my tablet. Human sense of ‘time’ and ‘numbers’ still confuse me. No matter where I went, Red tailed me. Even when he didn’t have tasks in that room, he was never too far away. I thought about sabotaging something as a distraction, but with Red always near me, he’d catch me in the act for sure!

So I just went around doing my tasks silently, trying as hard as possible to push down the rising paranoia of Red watching my every move. When we reached Admin, I could hear voices coming from inside.

”Can you believe this stupid card swipe? It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve done it, I can never quite get it on the first try.”

”Cheer up Purple, it’s not like that’s the worst task on ship.”

”Really? Because I beg to differ.”

Red walks ahead of me so the two crewmates notice him first.

”Oh hey, Red. Card swipe as well?” As I peek around the corner, I notice it’s Brown that’s speaking. I’m still not used to matching everyone’s voices to their names yet. By Brown’s body shape and higher toned voice, I guessed Brown was female. She was standing on the side opposite to Purple, viewing a map of the ship through the table’s hologram.

”Yep,” Red simply replies as he stands next to Purple with his card in hand.

Brown laughs as Purple gets more mad at the card swiping machine. “Hah, maybe you should help Purple out, he’s having a little trouble.”

Purple in question points an angry finger at Brown. “Oh screw you! You know I’ve done this plenty of times before! The fucking card swipe just hates me.”

Brown shrugs her shoulder. “Whatever you say.”

Meanwhile, I had silently plugged my tablet into the uploading task near the door. Brown turns off the hologram of the ship’s map and just as she turns around, she jumps as if frightened but then quickly calms down. “Jesus, Orange! You scared the bajeezies outta me! When did you get here??”

I stared at her blankly, confused on what I’m supposed to say in this situation. Did I do something wrong? Also what does ‘bajeezies’ mean? Dad didn’t teach me that word.

“Don’t worry Brown, he’s new. He’s not the same Orange from last time,” Red reassures. Not the same Orange from last time? What was that supposed to mean? Was the last mission Red and Brown were on Orange was an impostor? If that’s the case and these two are still alive, that means whoever that Orange was is mostly out in the void of space somewhere. Great, another thing to weigh me down on the importance of keeping our species alive.

Brown laughs nervously, before brushing herself off. “Aha, I know that, Red. Well anyways, I got a task in Shields. See you guys at dinner.”

And with that Brown quickly passes by me and leaves Admin. Just as she does, the card swipe scanner flashes green. 

“Yes! Finally!” Purple throws his hands in air in triumph before crossing his arms across his chest. I guess he had a smug face under that visor. “See? Told you I could do it. Oh where did Brown go?”

”She went off to do a task in Shields. Do you mind stepping aside so I can do my card swipe?” Red replies coolly.

”Oh uh sure, I’m gonna go with Brown, see ya’ll later,” Purple responds before leaving Admin as well. Now it was just Red and I again.

Red does his card swipe on the first try and my tablet notifies me the upload is done. He looks over at me.

”Don’t worry about Brown. She’s just a little paranoid from last mission, no biggy. Purple is her brother, so he may be a little over protective of her even though she annoys him to death. He wasn’t on the last mission Brown and I were on, but he's been on more missions than the both of us,” Red explains as if it’s nothing new. So my suspicions were right. Perhaps I can get more information about it? It’d make me fit more of the ‘new’ crewmate role as well I suppose.

”If you don’t mind me asking, what happened?”

Red’s body stiffens a little as he leans against the wall. “Just think about it as what happened to your friend in Electrical. Believe me when I say I’m glad I even survived one mission aboard the Skeld. I just wish impostors would leave us alone. We didn’t do anything, yet they kill us for no reason. Hundreds of ships have returned to port with no signs of any of the crew on board. Some say they were just dropped off on another planet, but I'm sure it's the imposters' doing. I’m only here because my dad went missing and I was old enough to take his place.”

Red looks back at me before moving towards the door. “I just wanna say that if you’re any situation like me, then I’m sorry, but these mission are never easy even when it seems to good to be true. And you seem like a nice kid, too. Just remember always to have your guard up. If you feel like you’re danger at any point in time, don't be afraid to scream at the top of your lungs for help. I can’t let another innocent newbie die first, please.”

Red must have noticed my body’s rigid state because he then stopped and put a hand on my shoulder. “Hey hey, it’s okay. We’re gonna be okay. Sorry I got all emotional on you, missions in space change a man. Well at least there are no sights of impostors on board yet. Maybe we got lucky this time. How about we just forget about this conversation and go to dinner, yeah? Card swipe can wait.”

All I could do was nod.

…

Pretty much everyone had seen me with Red at this point. If I killed him now, I would be the first suspect. And I’m not sure if I want to with that conversation back in Admin. Red was like a switch, he pretended as if it never happened. I mentally sighed. Guess I’ll have to wait for everyone to go to sleep to strike. I just hope I can last that long. Dad warned me that I’d have to go sometimes long periods without eating just to avoid suspicion, but my body isn’t quite adapted to that yet.

I never understood why humans needed so many hours of sleep. Maybe it’s just a human biology thing or an earth thing. I haven’t really needed to sleep, only an hour at minimum. Apparently our species was cathemeral or active during any time of the day and night on our home planet. Being opportunistic is our specialty.

When it comes to that sleep time, everyone will start heading towards their individual rooms, which is located in between Cafeteria, Medbay, and Storage. The bedrooms are also color coded and can be unlocked via the matching tablet. Different colored tablets won’t unlock other doors, except Green’s tablet which can unlock all bedroom doors. All bedrooms have vents that connect to Electrical. Perfect.

Everyone is currently gathering in Cafeteria to get some food via the ‘vending machines’ as they had called the strange metal boxes that dispensed dehydrated or preserved human food plus earth liquids called ‘water’ and 'soda'.

Our species are carnivores and as such, we can only eat meat, regardless of the kind of meat. Not only does anything else taste repulsive, but our body rejects to absorb it, having us painfully heave it all out or suffer indigestion. I made that mistake once as a hatchling, when another older impostor gave me something called a 'chocolate bar' one mission. They thought it would be funny to see my reaction when I tasted human food for the first time. Dad wasn’t happy at all when he found out what happened and had me spit it out in the airlock. 

I wasn’t sure if I should eat anything so I waited for everyone else to grab their dinner from the vending machine. While I was hungry, having burned off all the energy from my last meal aboard the last Skeld ship I was on, I didn’t wasn’t to risk having to run to the ‘toilet’ inside my room or the airlock just to vomit anything my body didn’t agree with. But then if I didn't eat then I would raise suspicion from the other crewmates. I was tempted to leave dinner early, finish that card swipe, and escape to my room where I can finally shield myself from prying eyes.

Unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky. I had apparently been standing in the corner of Cafeteria, watching everyone for quite a bit because Purple comes up to me. Red was getting food from the vending machine.

"Uh hey, Orange right? You okay, bud? You've been standing here there awhile. It's kinda creepy," He says flatly.

I shake myself out of my mental train of thought, "Oh um, sorry. I'm just going to turn in for the night after I finish my last task."

"Damn, not even 10 minutes into dinner time and you're already going back to work? Most newbies eat at the first chance they can get. You must be one of those hard workin' types," Purple laughs. "Man, Green is gonna like you. Just warnin' ya, but don't be too surprised if she makes you her special teacher's pet role she's got goin' on with Yellow. Anyways, if I don't see you again before I hit the hay, goodnight. Don't let the impostors bite!" He adds jokingly at the end before returning to his social group consisting of Brown, Pink, and Black.

I noticed Lime was sitting along another table, absently eating a bar of some sort while scrolling through their tablet. They actually seem good first target. Alone and no friends that might check up on them during the sleep time.

With that in mind, I headed back to Admin and pulled out my card. It took me 4 tries to get a green flash from the card scanner. There, now nobody can suspect me for not doing my tasks.

Curiously, I open up the ship's map on the admin table. Eight icons of crewmate helmets could be seen in Cafeteria, one icon in Admin, and unexpectedly one icon in Reactor. I wondered who was over there. Perhaps someone who didn't finish their last task like me? I struggled to remember who was missing from Cafeteria. I saw Green, Yellow, Black, Purple, Brown, Pink, Lime, Red, and of course myself, leaving... Cyan.

Maybe I don't have to wait until sleep time after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Red: I want to protect you from impostors  
> Orange: About that-


	5. Friend or Food?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orange has a hard time making up his mind.

I close the hologram of the map and head out of Admin with my mission in mind. I take the route through Storage as to avoid anybody stopping me in Cafeteria. As I reached the left engine room, I was tempted to use the vent. I knew it led to a vent in Reactor, but there’s nobody here right now so I think I’ll just use it for my escape.

Just thinking about food made my lower mouth grumble. Yeah yeah, I know I’m hungry, give me a moment. Come to think of it, it’s a bit harder to stay shape shifted on an empty stomach.

I walked up to the entrance of Reactor, but making sure I wasn’t visible. Ok Orange, you can do this. You’ve seen Dad do this plenty of times before! What’s there to worry about? I slowly peeked around the corner.

Expecting to see Cyan just doing a Reactor task, I was surprised to hear... crying? Cyan was sitting on the floor, leaning against the reactor itself. They were faced away from me, burying their face in their knees. It was also at that moment I realized they weren’t wearing their helmet either.

He, I think Cyan is male(?), had dark brown colored skin and short but curly black hair. Kind of looked fluffy if you asked me. His body was a more skinny build from what I could see.

As I took a step, the floor under me creaked. This alerted Cyan immediately as it was very quiet and the ship can echo a bit if you listen close enough.

Cyan jerked at the sound, quickly grabbing his helmet from the floor, turning toward the source of the noise. I knew I had already blown my measly cover by this point so I simply just walked into the visible doorway with my hands up; a calm, non-threating gesture Dad taught me.

Cyan's body relaxed a bit, putting his helmet back on. "Oh, it's just you, Orange. Sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone to be around here..."

"No no, sorry to bother you. I actually saw someone in Reactor on the admin table so I came to see if they were okay. I can go if you want," I started. Well it was half the truth. Maybe this was a bad idea...

Cyan cuts me off and puts a hand up as if to stop me with an invisible force, "No wait! You're new too, right?"

"Um, yes..?"

"Do you mind if I ask you something?" His voice softened a tad, switching his sitting position into crossing his legs with hands in his lap. He patted the floor next to him so I took that as a gesture to sit down.

"Sure... What is it?" I walk over to sit next to him, but make sure to keep my distance.

"How do you like being on the ship so far? I mean, it's great and all, I guess. We're in space, amiright?" Cyan laughed nervously before looking down at his hands.

"Well, it's okay I think. Tasks aren't as bad as most people seem to think. Everyone I've met has been nice to me so far. Granted there has been some awkward moments, but it's not like that that's not unexpected from more experienced crewmates, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose. But how can you be so calm? I've heard stories of people disappearing on ships like this one. People being brutally murdered with no explanation as to how. People being tossed into space for no reason. A-and those who were lucky enough to survive the trip back to Earth returned with ugly scars and developed PTSD or something. I used to have nightmares about it as a kid, still do. Black keeps saying that none of it's true and people just made that up to scare children, but I can't stop thinking about it ever since I stepped foot on this ship!"

I nodded in understanding. So humans are really that afraid of us? Afraid of us as we are of them? "I-I think I understand."

Cyan looked up at me. "You do?" His tone of voice is hopeful, but I could tell he was on the verge of crying again.

"Y-yeah. At least I think so. When I was a kid, my Dad used to tell me stories like that all the time. At first they were just as a bad joke, but as I got older, they became more of a warning. People being thrown into the vast void of space for no reason at all still gives me chills. Suffocating and freezing to death in the huge expanse of darkness with no way to save yourself. I mean who would do that to their own shipmate, right? I was so scared all the time that that would happen to my Dad when he went on these sort of missions. But, we just have to accept it, you know?"

"Yes, but how can you?! So they just expect us to watch our fellow crewmates get thrown out the airlock and pretend like none of that is wrong? Where is their sense of compassion?" Cyan raised his voice for a second before lowering it again. "What if that was the last time I ever got to see home or my family? What if I never get the chance to say I'm sorry to them? Sorry that I left? Sorry that I disappeared out of the blue? And for what? Just because this stupid job pays well?"

Cyan paused for a bit before looking directly at me. If it weren't for the visors, I was sure he was starring directly into my eyes. With a noticeable quiver and his voice so soft it was almost a mumble, "Orange, I don't want to die..."

And with that, I felt immensely bad for some reason. It was so strange. I had never felt this kind of sympathy(?), or was it pity(?), towards a human before. Cyan has a family. Much like I had Dad. If I was thrown into space, would Dad cry for me? Would he feel bad about my death or would he brush it off as I failed my mission? I knew Dad loved me enough to raise me and care for me, but I'm not his first his offspring. I could never tell what he was truly thinking or feeling, only when he wanted me to see it.

I looked away, "I don't want to either."

I heard heavy footsteps coming our way before Red appears around the corner. His body language appears frantic, but relaxes when he catches sight of Cyan and I sitting on the floor. "There you are, Orange! You had me worried for a minute there. Purple said you were in Admin, but when I didn't find you there, the map showed two people were in here. Don't run off on me like that again, please."

I stood up and casually walked over to him. "It's okay Red. I'm fine. I was just talking with Cyan. This is his first mission too."

"Uh, actually I prefer they/them pronouns, thanks," Cyan adds awkwardly. Wait so humans have more than two genders now?

"Oh well, nice to see you two getting along," Red commented.

"I'm going to turn in for the night if you don't mind," I stated calmly before turning to leave.

"Wait, Orange!"

I stopped in my tracks to turn my attention to Cyan.

"Thank you," He-They finish. 

I nod my head. "Anytime." And with that I take my leave, walking back towards Cafeteria. Red walked behind me, but I wasn't paying attention to him at the moment. Even as I walked into Cafeteria, I didn't take notice of the stares from the other crewmates. I had too much on my mind.

I made a beeline to the bedrooms and Red gives me a simple, "See you tomorrow at breakfast." just before I head to my room. I hold up my tablet to the orange marked scanner. It flashes green and unlocks the door, allowing me to go inside and close the door behind me.

I sighed. Finally, freedom. I flop myself onto the bed, just letting my body melt into the its softness. I remove my helmet and put it aside so I could stare up at the ceiling. In truth, we actually don't have a respiratory system so we technically don't need to breathe and since helmets aren't see through from the outside looking in, I don't have to shift my face 24/7, its just my arms and legs I have to worry about which is a good thing because I find have only two eyes weird and restricting. It's not the almost 360 degree vision I'm used to. I pull down the zipper of my suit so my lower mouth could relax. Honestly, the worst part about these suits is how they uncomfortably brushed the edges of my lower mouth whenever I moved. In my opinion, clothing as a whole is restricting. I don't understand how humans are comfortable with it either. Speaking of, said lower mouth grumbles again, this time accompanied by a pang of hunger. Oh right, still hungry.

Why do I have this good(?) feeling for talking with Cyan? Wasn't I going to kill them like not even 5 minutes ago? Well, I don't know how long we were talking, but it was interesting. Are humans always this emotional? Am I going to get a heartfelt conversation with literally every crewmate I meet? It's like they're giving me reasons not to kill them without them even knowing my intentions. It's confusing and annoying. Do they expect me to starve to death over risking the feeling of guilt about killing anyone?

Well its not like I need sleep either right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Orange: I'm going to kill Cyan  
> 5 minutes later  
> Orange: I'm not going to kill Cyan
> 
> Damn my fingers just went nyooom with this chapter so be sure to point out if there's any errors I missed


	6. Pet Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orange trying to get some food 2: electric boogaloo

I lie awake in bed, waiting until the crewmates all turn in for their sleep time. I noticed they called the start of their sleep time ‘lights out’ which signaled everyone was in their rooms. Just to make sure they were all asleep, I waited a few more hours. Okay _now_ I can finally get to business. I stood up and stripped myself of the orange spacesuit, tossing it carelessly on the bed. I had made sure the light in my room was off just in case anyone could see light outside the room and question why I wasn’t asleep.

I looked around my room which was small, but consisted of a bed, a small table next to the bed I think is called a ‘nightstand’, a ‘shower’, and a ‘toilet’. Whenever dad went on missions, these rooms always looked exactly the same. I’d spend most of my time when I was little hiding in the room’s vent, but I would explore around a bit when no one was around. That vent in question was in the same place, located in the corner back of the room on the floor, right underneath the bed. It was a tight fit, but I’d manage. After all, we don’t have ‘bones’ like humans do to keep out structure. Most of our body mass is made up of black, sentient biomass that contorts to our will. The only ‘organs’ we have is our stomach, two tongues, and lots of teeth. Plus the two mandibles on the sides of my lower mouth used for gripping prey. Of course they are all made of the same biomass, but you get what I mean.

I shifted and merged my currently human-looking legs into that of a long tail. Most of the limb shifts I know are from earth creatures, knowledge passed on from generation to generation of impostors. I can’t mimic a form I haven’t seen before so that plays a factor too. This tail mimics the tail of an earth creature called a ‘snake’. It’s very useful for making vent travel quicker and easier. Opening the hatch of the vent, I squeeze my body head first through the opening. Once my body drops inside the vent, which is a bit more spacious, I close the vent door behind me. I start making my way across the vent until I reached the electrical vent where I could choose which path to divert to. The far right two path ways led to Security and Medbay meanwhile the rest led to the crewmates’ personal rooms. I smacked my head in my complete ignorance before I ‘went to bed’ to look at which room was color. Now I don’t know which room any of these vents lead to. Great.

Should I just go to each individual room and see which one each vent leads to? I’d have to peak out from under the bed to be able to see their color though and that could risk being seen. I sighed frustratedly. But it’s a risk I’m going to have to take.

I went into the first vent to the right of the Medbay vent. It led me to the room closest to Cafeteria. As I made my way closer to the vent opening, I suddenly hear light footsteps get up and something start to sniff around. The footsteps sounded too light to be human and probably stood on more than two legs. I tried to peek through the small vertical holes on the vent cover to see what it was, but I couldn’t get a clear view. I got a glimpse of light blue fur. Oh. It’s that weird looking animal from earlier that I saw walking onto the ship. It was apparently a cross between the earth animal ‘dog’ and alien DNA, according to my half-hearted eavesdropping when everyone was first boarding the ship. Apparently normal dogs are supposed to have two eyes instead of one and have brown to white colored fur instead of light blue. Said dog-thing(?) started growling softly at vent. If I don’t shut this thing up soon, it’ll expose me to the human above.

”Cyclops, go to sleep and quit ya yappin’,” The human in question said sleepily.

However, the dog seemed more interested in me than to listen to its owner. As I slowly pushed the vent cover open, the dog only got more agitated. I could see it better now as I peeked my head out of the vent. The hair on its body stood up, back arched, teeth bared at me and it growled even louder now. I stared hungrily at the dog, eyes wide. I had let my instincts take control of me, quickly shapeshifting my arm into multiple long tentacles and shooting them out to wrap around the dog. I quickly pulled it towards me and into the vent. The dog yowled in pure terror and struggled in my grasp. My upper mouth opened and I’m sinking my teeth into the dog’s neck as it cries loudly in pain.

I hadn’t noticed before but there’s an audible, ”Yo what the fuck-no NO NO NO NO!“ just as the dog started yowling. I could hear the human quickly sit up, get off the bed, and sit on the floor. Probably to look under the bed where the their dog disappeared from view. I quickly cut off the dog’s cries as I end it’s life and hurry away back the way I came with my prize hanging limp in my jaws.

Just as I leave I can hear the human yelling, “YOU BASTARD! GIVE ME BACK MY DOG! CYCLOPS! BUDDY, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!”

Shit they saw me grab the dog. I tried to drown out the noise of them yelling as I make my way back to my room. Not even five minutes later, the alarm of the emergency meeting button goes off, waking everyone from their sleep. Shit! This is going from bad to worse! First thing I sink my teeth in since I came aboard this ship and I can’t even enjoy it in peace! I push myself out of the vent, leaving the corpse of the dog in the vent for later. I shift my tail back into legs, my tentacles back into a human arm before putting on my orange spacesuit and helmet.

As I open the door to my room, I can see everyone else start to come out of theirs. Good, I’m not suspiciously late and everyone is probably tired from being awakened so quickly. I could hear sleepy murmurs of, “What’s goin’ on?” from the other crewmates. As people arrived to Cafeteria, we all took a seat around the table. Pink’s body language looked mad, if not livid and/or frightened.

Green was first to speak up, “Alright, who called the meeting and why?”

Pink answered immediately, “I did! And I’m hear to tell you all, that we have a fucking impostor aboard!”

That got everyone’s attention.

”An impostor?”

”What the hell?”

”Are you sure?”

”How do you know there’s an impostor?”

Green raised her voice to silence the others comments, “Alright, alright settle down everyone. Now Pink, why do you think there’s an impostor aboard? You realize this is a very serious thing to say, correct?”

”Yes, but I’m sure there’s one on board! Cyclops, my dog, starts growling in the middle of the night at seemingly nothing. I start to doze off again for like a hot second before I see these long, black tentacles things shoot out _from under my fucking bed_ and _fucking drags my poor Cyclops_ right into the _fucking VENT!_ So in other words, a fucking _IMPOSTOR just KILLED MY FUCKING DOG!_ ” Pink aggressively explained. Ah so that was Pink’s room. 

Everyone is in silence. I tried to calm my rising panic. Pink only saw my tentacles, right? He has no reason to think it’s me. Specifically to think it’s Orange. So it’s alright. I’m okay... I hope.

After a hot minute, Green spoke up again, “I see. I’m very sorry for your loss, but do you have any clue or idea as to who it might be?”

Pink looked down, “No, but I’m not going to be able to sleep until we find the fucker.”

”Wait didn’t you say these tentacles that dragged your dog were black?” Yellow piped in. Suddenly everyone was looking at Black.

Black flinched as if surprised, “Wait why are you all looking at me for? I didn’t kill his damn dog!”

”Oh yeah? So where you just now before the meeting was called?” Brown asked suspiciously.

”I’m a security guard, I was doing my shift in Security. I promise I never left that area.”

”So what if you didn’t? You could have used the vent to go and kill Pink’s dog!”

”Look just because my suit happens to be black, doesn’t mean it’s me, Brown.”

”It’s not only that, but you were the only one up at this hour too! It has to be you! Pink, you agree with me right?” Brown looked over at Pink. He had been staring hard at Black the whole time during this argument and nodded when asked. “See? Green I think we should vote Black.”

”W-what! There’s literally no evidence here! Why are you so quick to vote me off?! If anything I’d think _you’re_ trying to _use me_ to cover this up! For all we know, it could be _you,_ Brown!” Black pointed an accusatory finger at her.

”Hey, don’t you accuse my sister like that! If anyone would know if Brown was an impostor, it’s me!” Purple defended. “If anything, I think _you’re_ just trying to throw the blame because she accused you first!”

“Really, you’re seriously siding with her? I thought we were friends, Purple!”

”We _were_ friends until you got, I dunno maybe _replaced_ with one of those fucking aliens! I’ve been on enough missions that I’ve seen friends turn out to be not who they say they are! For all _I_ know, the real Black could be buried somewhere in that enormous fucking stomach of yours!”

”Guys! Guys! That’s enough!” Green interjected. “We will settle this with a vote.”

Everyone had their tablets out and started voting. I wasn’t sure what to vote. I barely knew Black and never actually had a conversation with her, but I felt bad to send someone to that cruel death sentence. However if they did space her, that would be one less crewmate to worry about. By the time I was done mental debating, the timer was almost up so I just voted to skip. Voting showed up as anonymous so no one knew who voted for who, but we were able to see how many people voted for what.

Tension was very present around the room and soon everyone submitted their vote.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pink: An impostor killed my dog  
> Crewmates: Understandable, let’s start accusing people
> 
> Rip doggo Cyclops, he was a good boi and shall be remembered for his noble sacrifice
> 
> Just so y’all don’t get confused:  
> Orange: He/Him  
> Red: He/Him  
> Brown: She/Her  
> Purple: He/Him  
> Cyan: They/Them (born male)  
> Black: She/Her  
> Green: She/Her  
> Yellow: She/Her  
> Pink: He/Him  
> Lime: They/Them (born female)

**Author's Note:**

> I’m addicted to Among Us and after reading a bunch of Among Us fanfictions I decided to why not make my own? So here you go.  
> If you like the story so far, it really motivates me if you leave kudos or comment!  
> Thanks for giving it a read!


End file.
